0000000000976182
AUTHOR
Andrei Costin
showing 20 related works from this author
Brima: Low-Overhead Browser-Only Image Annotation Tool (Preprint)
2021
Image annotation and large annotated datasets are crucial parts within the Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence this http URL the same time, it is well-known and acknowledged by the research community that the image annotation process is challenging, time-consuming and hard to scale. Therefore, the researchers and practitioners are always seeking ways to perform the annotations easier, faster, and at higher quality. Even though several widely used tools exist and the tools' landscape evolved considerably, most of the tools still require intricate technical setups and high levels of technical savviness from its operators and crowdsource contributors. In order to address such challenge…
Finding Software Bugs in Embedded Devices
2021
AbstractThe goal of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the domain of bug discovery in embedded systems which are at the core of the Internet of Things. Embedded software has a number of particularities which makes it slightly different to general purpose software. In particular, embedded devices are more exposed to software attacks but have lower defense levels and are often left unattended. At the same time, analyzing their security is more difficult because they are very “opaque”, while the execution of custom and embedded software is often entangled with the hardware and peripherals. These differences have an impact on our ability to find software bugs in such systems. This chapt…
Lua Code: Security Overview and Practical Approaches to Static Analysis
2017
Lua is an interpreted, cross-platform, embeddable, performant and low-footprint language. Lua's popularity is on the rise in the last couple of years. Simple design and efficient usage of resources combined with its performance make it attractive for production web applications even to big organizations such as Wikipedia, CloudFlare and GitHub. In addition to this, Lua is one of the preferred choices for programming embedded and IoT devices. This context allows to assume a large and growing Lua codebase yet to be assessed. This growing Lua codebase could be potentially driving production servers and extremely large number of devices, some perhaps with mission-critical function for example i…
Towards Automated Classification of Firmware Images and Identification of Embedded Devices
2017
Part 4: Operating System and Firmware Security; International audience; Embedded systems, as opposed to traditional computers, bring an incredible diversity. The number of devices manufactured is constantly increasing and each has a dedicated software, commonly known as firmware. Full firmware images are often delivered as multiple releases, correcting bugs and vulnerabilities, or adding new features. Unfortunately, there is no centralized or standardized firmware distribution mechanism. It is therefore difficult to track which vendor or device a firmware package belongs to, or to identify which firmware version is used in deployed embedded devices. At the same time, discovering devices tha…
Towards CCTV-aware Routing and Navigation for Privacy, Anonymity, and Safety - Feasibility Study in Jyväskylä
2021
AbstractIn order to withstand the ever-increasing invasion of privacy by CCTV cameras and technologies, on par CCTV-aware solutions must exist that provide privacy, safety, and cybersecurity features. We argue that a first important step towards such CCTV-aware solutions must be a mapping system (e.g., Google Maps, OpenStreetMap) that provides both privacy and safety routing and navigation options. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, there are no mapping nor navigation systems that support CCTV-privacy and CCTV-safety routing options. At the same time, in order to move the privacy vs. safety debate related to CCTV surveillance cameras from purely subjective to data-driven and evide…
On Apache Log4j2 Exploitation in Aeronautical, Maritime, and Aerospace Communication
2022
Apache Log4j2 is a prevalent logging library for Java-based applications. In December 2021, several critical and high-impact software vulnerabilities, including CVE-2021-44228, were publicly disclosed, enabling remote code execution (RCE) and denial of service (DoS) attacks. To date, these vulnerabilities are considered critical and the consequences of their disclosure far-reaching. The vulnerabilities potentially affect a wide range of internet of things (IoT) devices, embedded devices, critical infrastructure (CI), and cyber-physical systems (CPSs). In this paper, we study the effects and feasibility of exploiting these vulnerabilities in mission-critical aviation and maritime environment…
Cybersecurity Attacks on Software Logic and Error Handling Within ADS-B Implementations: Systematic Testing of Resilience and Countermeasures
2022
Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is a cornerstone of the next-generation digital sky and is now mandated in several countries. However, there have been many reports of serious security vulnerabilities in the ADS-B architecture. In this paper, we demonstrate and evaluate the impact of multiple cyberattacks on ADS-B via remote radio frequency links that affected various network, processing, and display subsystems used within the ADS-B ecosystem. Overall we implemented and tested 12 cyberattacks on ADS-B in a controlled environment, out of which 5 attacks were presented or implemented for the first time. For all these attacks, we developed a unique testbed that consisted of 1…
Cybersecurity Attacks on Software Logic and Error Handling Within AIS Implementations: A Systematic Testing of Resilience
2022
To increase situational awareness of maritime vessels and other entities and to enable their exchange of various information, the International Maritime Organization mandated the use of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) in 2004. The AIS is a self-reporting system that uses the VHF radio link. However, any radio-based self-reporting system is prone to forgery, especially in situations where authentication of the message is not designed into the architecture. As AIS was designed in the 1990s when cyberattacks were in their infancy, it does not implement authentication or encryption; thus, it can be seen as fundamentally vulnerable against modern-day cyberattacks. This paper demonstrat…
GDL90fuzz: Fuzzing - GDL-90 Data Interface Specification Within Aviation Software and Avionics Devices–A Cybersecurity Pentesting Perspective
2022
As the core part of next-generation air transportation systems, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is becoming very popular. However, many (if not most) ADS-B devices and implementations support and rely on Garmin’s GDL-90 protocol for data exchange and encapsulation. In this paper, we research GDL-90 protocol fuzzing options and demonstrate practical Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks on popular Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) software operating on mobile devices. For this purpose, we specifically configured our own avionics pentesting platform. and targeted the popular Garmin’s GDL-90 protocol as the industry-leading devices operate on it. We captured legitimate traffic from …
Towards Practical Cybersecurity Mapping of STRIDE and CWE — a Multi-perspective Approach
2021
Software vulnerabilities are identified during their whole life-cycle; some vulnerabilities may be caused by flaws on the design while other appear due to advances on the technologies around the systems. Frameworks such as OWASP are well- known and are used for testing a systems security before or after implementation, and such testing is carried out against the existing system. Threat modeling however focuses on the early stages of the system design when it is feasible and easy to fix security-related flaws and prevent possible damage caused by them. For example, STRIDE is one very popular threat modeling framework. A STRIDE threat modelling specialist deals with abstract categorizations o…
ISAdetect
2020
Static and dynamic binary analysis techniques are actively used to reverse engineer software's behavior and to detect its vulnerabilities, even when only the binary code is available for analysis. To avoid analysis errors due to misreading op-codes for a wrong CPU architecture, these analysis tools must precisely identify the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) of the object code under analysis. The variety of CPU architectures that modern security and reverse engineering tools must support is ever increasing due to massive proliferation of IoT devices and the diversity of firmware and malware targeting those devices. Recent studies concluded that falsely identifying the binary code's ISA ca…
Insecure Firmware and Wireless Technologies as “Achilles’ Heel” in Cybersecurity of Cyber-Physical Systems
2022
In this chapter, we analyze cybersecurity weaknesses in three use-cases of real-world cyber-physical systems: transportation (aviation), remote explosives and robotic weapons (fireworks pyrotechnics), and physical security (CCTV). The digitalization, interconnection, and IoT-nature of cyber-physical systems make them attractive targets. It is crucial to ensure that such systems are protected from cyber attacks, and therefore it is equally important to study and understand their major weaknesses. peerReviewed
Reducing the Time to Detect Cyber Attacks : Combining Attack Simulation With Detection Logic
2021
Cyber attacks have become harder to detect, causing the average detection time of a successful data breach to be over six months and typically costing the target organization nearly four million dollars. The attacks are becoming more sophisticated and targeted, leaving unprepared environments easy prey for the attackers. Organizations with working antivirus systems and firewalls may be surprised when they discover their network has been encrypted by a ransomware operator. This raises a serious question, how did the attacks go undetected? The conducted research focuses on the most common pitfalls regarding late or even non-existent detection by defining the root cause behind the failed detec…
On the (In)Security of 1090ES and UAT978 Mobile Cockpit Information Systems : An Attacker Perspective on the Availability of ADS-B Safety- and Missio…
2022
Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) is a key air surveillance technology and a critical component of next-generation air transportation systems. It significantly simplifies aircraft surveillance technology and improves airborne traffic situational awareness. Many types of mobile cockpit information systems (MCISs) are based on ADS-B technology. MCIS gives pilots the flight and traffic-related information they need. MCIS has two parts: an ADS-B transceiver and an electronic flight bag (EFB) application. The ADS-B transceivers transmit and receive the ADS-B radio signals while the EFB applications hosted on mobile phones display the data. Because they are cheap, lightweight, an…
Towards usable automated detection of CPU architecture and endianness for arbitrary binary files and object code sequences
2019
Static and dynamic binary analysis techniques are actively used to reverse engineer software's behavior and to detect its vulnerabilities, even when only the binary code is available for analysis. To avoid analysis errors due to misreading op-codes for a wrong CPU architecture, these analysis tools must precisely identify the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) of the object code under analysis. The variety of CPU architectures that modern security and reverse engineering tools must support is ever increasing due to massive proliferation of IoT devices and the diversity of firmware and malware targeting those devices. Recent studies concluded that falsely identifying the binary code's ISA ca…
BRIMA : Low-Overhead Browser-Only Image Annotation Tool
2021
Image annotation and large annotated datasets are crucial parts within the Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence fields. At the same time, it is well-known and acknowledged by the research community that the image annotation process is challenging, time-consuming and hard to scale. Therefore, the researchers and practitioners are always seeking ways to perform the annotations easier, faster, and at higher quality. Even though several widely used tools exist and the tools’ landscape evolved considerably, most of the tools still require intricate technical setups and high levels of technical savviness from its operators and crowdsource contributors.In order to address such challenges, w…
CCTV-FullyAware: toward end-to-end feasible privacy-enhancing and CCTV forensics applications
2022
It is estimated that over 1 billion Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are operational worldwide. The advertised main benefits of CCTV cameras have always been the same; physical security, safety, and crime deterrence. The current scale and rate of deployment of CCTV cameras bring additional research and technical challenges for CCTV forensics as well, as for privacy enhancements. This paper presents the first end-to-end system for CCTV forensics and feasible privacy-enhancing applications such as exposure measurement, CCTV route recovery, CCTV-aware routing/navigation, and crowd-sourcing. For this, we developed and evaluated four complex and distinct modules (CCTVCV [1], OSRM-CCTV [2],…
IoT/Embedded vs. Security : Learn from the Past, Apply to the Present, Prepare for the Future
2018
It is expected there will be 50 billion IoT/embedded connected devices by 2020. At the same time, multiple recent studies revealed that IoT/embedded devices and their software/firmware is plagued with weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Moreover, various recent and prominent attacks, such as the Mirai botnet targeting Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) IoT/embedded devices, and the ROCA attack targeting secure embedded hardware chips (in their many form-factors), clearly demonstrate the need to secure the many layers and components of the highly fragmented and heterogeneous ecosystem of IoT/embedded devices. In this paper we aim to explore, discuss and exemplify some research aspects and direction…
CCTVCV: Computer Vision model/dataset supporting CCTV forensics and privacy applications
2022
The increased, widespread, unwarranted, and unaccountable use of Closed-Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) cameras globally has raised concerns about privacy risks for the last several decades. Recent technological advances implemented in CCTV cameras, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based facial recognition and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, fuel further concerns among privacy advocates. Machine learning and computer vision automated solutions may prove necessary and efficient to assist CCTV forensics of various types. In this paper, we introduce and release the first and only computer vision models are compatible with Microsoft common object in context (MS COCO) and capable of accurately…
HALE-IoT: HArdening LEgacy Internet-of-Things devices by retrofitting defensive firmware modifications and implants
2022
Internet-Of-Things (IoT) devices and their firmware are notorious for their lifelong vulnerabilities. As device infection increases, vendors also fail to release patches at a competitive pace. Despite security in IoT being an active area of research, prior work has mainly focused on vulnerability detection and exploitation, threat modelling, and protocol security. However, these methods are ineffective in preventing attacks against legacy and End-Of-Life devices that are already vulnerable. Current research mainly focuses on implementing and demonstrating the potential of malicious modifications. Hardening emerges as an effective solution to provide IoT devices with an additional layer of d…